Headdress surfaces from dark trail of deals

PERU - A gold headdress, which has been described as "Peru's Mona Lisa", has been recovered by Scotland Yard. The headdress, which is almost 1m wide, depicts a sea god, portrayed as an octopus with a stylised human head. It is regarded by experts as one of the most important artefacts of Peruvian culture.

The piece disappeared in 1988 shortly after it was discovered in a tomb in northern Peru.

The headdress is believed to have ended up in the hands of Raul Apestiguia, a Peruvian dealer who was murdered in 1996 and his home ransacked. It next appeared on the black market for sale by a notorious Latin American dealer, along with another 41 stolen artefacts. A London-based dealer, Michel van Rijn, posted details of the headdress on his website with details of the alleged illegal trader. He was contacted by the dealer, who offered the headdress in return for taking his details off the website.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police's art and antiques squad struck after the trader handed the headdress to a lawyer in London for safe-keeping. The piece was seized but the dealer escaped.

Van Rijn said of the headdress: "It is Peru's Mona Lisa. It is impossible to put a price on a piece of history and world heritage such as this because they never come on the market, but should it do so, it could reach in excess of £1 million [$2.95 million]."

- INDEPENDENT